Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and other processing devices for establishing radio communication with one another by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, typically on a range of a few centimeters. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 18000-3 air interface at rates ranging from approximately 106 kbit/s to 424 kbits/s. NFC typically involves an initiator and a target. In some arrangements, the initiator actively generates a radio frequency (RF) field that powers a passive target. This allows NFC targets to take very simple form factors that do not require batteries.
An NFC target may comprise a microchip with small aerials which is capable of storing a small amount of information for transfer to an NFC initiator. Devices with NFC capability are becoming generally available. Examples of such devices include smartphones, tablets, laptops and other computing and processing devices.